Commissioned

Jesus stayed two days in Samaria, when elsewhere he instructed his disciples not to preach in Samaritan villages because He had an appointment to reach the Samaritan. His ministry was to reach all people because He is the Savior of the whole world. The implications for our lives is to reach beyond our immediate borders and reach out to peoples of the world. The church’s mission is to reach the world for Christ.

At the end of the age when the final harvest takes place and Christ comes the Christian worker will receive a just reward according to his labor.

The harvest ripen so rapidly in Sychar because the Son of Man was about the business of God. The testimony of one, or of many, is vitally important so that the message of the gospel in the lives of people can be heard and encourage and uplift others; in come cases like the woman at the well, bring some to Jesus. It is necessary the we keep our eyes open so that we seize every opportunity to share the gospel with those who are ready to hear.

The harvest ripen so rapidly in Sychar because the Son of Man was about the business of God. The testimony of one, or of many, is vitally important so that the message of the gospel in the lives of people can be heard and encourage and uplift others; in come cases like the woman at the well, bring some to Jesus. It is necessary the we keep our eyes open so that we seize every opportunity to share the gospel with those who are ready to hear.

In these verses, when Jesus spoke of food he spoke of nourishment for the spirit-man. Jesus' passion was to do the Will of Father God. My passion is also to do the Will of God and with His grace I continue to reach the mark and accomplish the work He's set for me.

“God is spirit” means that He is not flesh and blood as man is; His substance is not corporeal, rather He is invisible and omnipresent. To worship God in spirit and in truth means that we worship Him not from what can be seen but that which cannot be visibly seen. Its an offering from the heart. Many times we've gone through the motions of worship without worshipping, at times when we're distracted or we're worried and not trusting God. To worship in a way more pleasing to God I must enter into worship by the Holy Spirit and intentionally set those distractions aside to truly worship God.

The woman brought up the religious controversy because it was the teaching that she knew. Today many people try to generate a religious controversy based on what they have heard from others. Their motives are to tell the facts as they understand them, while I believe, they really welcome the truth.

The effect of Jesus’ special knowledge of the woman’s history with men is that she believed that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, because, as she said, only the Messiah could reveal to her the things that He did. She believed that Jesus was the expected Messiah and she ran to tell others. The gifts of the Spirit is still at work today to bring people to faith and deepening their faith when they themselves and others see the change that the Spirit of God brings to a person's life.

In (4:9) the "Gift of God" refers to the "baptism with the Spirit" which John the Baptist spoke of concerning Christ. Once filled with the Spirit of God there is a continual filling as you nurture the gift with a fervant and deep spiritual relationship with God.

Jesus’ words to the woman in verses 10-13 seem to imply that all people are spiritually thirsty because we were created to worship and serve God. When a person is not in a relationship with God where he is continuously worshipping and serving God there will be a vacuum that will be void of a sense of accomplishment. The fact that the woman is living a life style where she seeks to find happiness in doing acts that are immoral and not in a relationship with her heaveanly father attest to the fact that she is indeed spiritually thirsty at this point. Being in Jesus' presence brought to surface her deep thirst even more. This teaches us that when we meet people to witness the gospel, do so with the knowledge that they too have a thirst that God wants to quench.

I think Jesus' went against the social norms to communicate with the woman to show her that God's love for her is above the prejudice of man and to show the disciples that forgiveness and salvation is for everyone. We sometimes hesitate to go against the social norms to share the good news because we are concerned with what others may have to say rather that what God wants of us. We need to balance our need to obey God and the need to live peacably in our culture by promoting the gospel and keepoing it in the forefront of the unbelievers and believers.

Oh yes, it is possible to believe in God’s love and God’s wrath at the same time. The New Testament speaks over and over of the wrath of God which will be experienced by those who disobey Him and those who chose not to accept Jesus as His son, One of these verses is , "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness." (Romans 1:18). Our salvation is secured when we accept jesus as the Son of God and obey his commandments. The death of Jesus has atoned for our sin. The wrath of God, eternal punishment, is a person's destiny without Jesus' life.

To be successful in my Christian life and to have Christ increase and me decrease I need to give complete control over to Him. I can facilitate the necessary shift by becominh more like Christ and become meek and humble; and allow the Spirit of God to lead. I need to spent more time listening so that I can obey my God.

John the Baptist find joy in Jesus’ success as he hears that Jesus' ministry is successful, He' reaching people, He is increasing. John sees his mission to prepare the people as a forerunner coming to a close. The success of others who are doing what God has called them to do is a blessing. When people compete without the anointing to do so they err and their work is not successful. Some pastors compete with others because they see the work that they are doing in the flesh. They do not walk and submit themselves to the leading of the Spirit of God.

No, there has never been a thought of resentment of “larger churches” that attracted people from “our” church. There is only "the Church of Jesus Christ." It is wrong to have any ind of resentment when people chose to worship in a congregation other than yours because the truth is that ws are all His. When we harbor resentment, it is not self-pity but rather seeking to "control" others, robbing them of their freedom to worship where they want.

The importance of Jesus spending time with his disciples was deliberate. Jesus wanted to pour into His disciples allthat He could, of Himself, sio that they could carry on the work of spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Jesus' strategy in doing this was to have them in His presence as often as possible. He taught of the Kingdom of God again and again, teaching them all that they should teach others concerning the Kingdom of God. Today, Jesus uses other disciples to partner with Him in disciple-making. We spend time with the Discipler in our time of prayer, fellowship, reading of the Word of God and in worship. Time with the Discipler is most important and time with those we disciple is very important to be able to share with them as God Himself would have us.

John 3:16 is so famous because it tells the world in few words of God’s love for the world and what He has done to restore man to his rightful place with Him in heaven. It is “the” verse used when telling the unsaved, unbeliever that God loves them. It teaches us that God has made a way for mankind to be reconciled to Him and enter into an eternal life. It teaches that salvation if for the entire world, all mankind. It teaches that for the believer, “entering eternal life” or “entering the Kingdom of God” is an unending life; a life that has no ending. John 3:16 gives man hope of living forever with a loving God.

"Born of water and the Spirit” means to be baptized by immersion in water and a spiritual baptism by the Holy Spirit which is an experience of the believers at repentance. This is what Jesus referred to when he told Nicodemus: You must be born anew by your own repentance and humbling yourself before God and the Holy Spirit's divine regenerative work within you. To paraphrase "born of water and the Spirit" to best bring out the full meaning one can say, as is generally said to repent or to be saved.

The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom, it is hidden from unbelievers and is only entered into by those who believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God. Our Sovereign God has given the qualification for entering the kingdom of God and being “born again” is a part of the process that qualifies one for entering the kingdom of God. Being “born again,” “born anew,” both come from a spiritual birth; from above.

Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is not physical in nature but it is spiritual. The kingdom of God is seen by those born of the Spirit, the second birth. At first Nicodemus understood "to be born again" was to enter once again in the mother's womb. After Jesus’ teaching, Nicodemus understood that the kingdom of God is spiritually discerned and can only be entered into spiritually.

Faith that rests solely on miracles is not fully trusting in God to do what he want to do when He want it done. It is faith that shallow and not grounded in confidence in God. That is not true faith; in order for it to develop into true faith is one who gives total confidence in God's ability to manifest a miracle according to His will. Jesus continue to perform miracles and taught His disciples so that they would have faith that is true and grounded in trusting God.

Jesus' anger was indeed justified as His Father's House was being used for purposes other that what God had intended it to be used for. Anger can be good and bad, but in this case it was good. If Jesus had not gotten angry and allowed the blasphemy to continue He would have sinned and He cannot sin. Sinning in this case is seeing wrong or injust being done and turning a blind eye. Anger that gets us into trouble is anger that is unjustified; such as, anger that causes physical or mental harn to someone.

In the temple courts the men were selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others were sitting at tables exchanging money. Jesus was offended by it because they were cluttering the place that was designated for prayer to God. This angered Jsus and He overturned the tables, formed a cord and whipped the men out of the temple.

Jesus perform this miracle behind-the-scenes because He wanted to remain on God the Father's timetable. He said many time that His purpose was to do the Father's will, not his or His mother's. He was protecting His anointing, His purpose. The quantity and the quality of the wine tells us that Jesus' glory is above all others; there is no comparison.

Alcoholics are quick to point out this miracle because they want to justify why they indulge in this addiction. It is okay to drink a glass of wine but when drinking to excess and you become drunk, it is a sin. you can avoid excesses and still enjoy God's good gifts by using them in moderation.